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I was searching around trying to find other people with the same problem - and I guess a bunch of the M5 owners are having the same problem. I was curious if anyone knew the following:

a.) what is leaking out of the mirror, and/or is it harmful. (I'm assuming it has something to do with the auto dimming).

b.) To get an OEM replacement, what's the best place to go for a decent price? Dealership wants something like 600 bucks.

Also, what's the best way to clean this gunk off my center console?

I think even if the car is out of warranty they would still "good faith" swap it out for you since it's not uncommon. My brother's '03 M3 also went out and it was covered by the dealership. His didn't leak as far as I know, just got dark spots on it and the dim feature didn't work. He didn't even know it wasn't dimming until I drove it one night and told him it was ka-put.

that would be amazing. It's a 2002 with 35,000 miles - so I don't know what they are going to say. Just seems like a strange problem to have. My mirror completely fogged at this point, cars behind me are just a huge blur.

i wish they would replace the mirror- seems like a defective part considering all the people that have this issue. It seems to go out when it get hot... which mine did. Although its hard to say hot in Seattle. I have an '02 and my dealership couldn't even confirm whether or not its covered by my CPO warranty. Its been like a month- and they haven't contacted me (like they said they would) to tell me if its covered. When I contacted BMW they too said they would get back to me. Its been several weeks at that too. I guess it bothers me that out of all the cars I have ever owned that the rear view mirror would fail me...

well I went to the dealership, and the guy told me it was component failure and that it wasn't covered. It frustrates me, as the car has such low milage... I said something like "My car may be 5 years old, but based on the milage you can see how often this car has been driven... blah blah blah" and he said it didn't matter. I guess I understand, as I own a computer company and if someone came in with an LCD that had been used 10 times in 3 years, but it had failed - I'd be saying "it's out of the 3 year warranty" as well - but at the same time, I'd at least try to work with the customer to hook them up with something at cost, or something - ya know? Customer service maybe?

I was searching around trying to find other people with the same problem - and I guess a bunch of the M5 owners are having the same problem. I was curious if anyone knew the following:

a.) what is leaking out of the mirror, and/or is it harmful. (I'm assuming it has something to do with the auto dimming).

b.) To get an OEM replacement, what's the best place to go for a decent price? Dealership wants something like 600 bucks.

Also, what's the best way to clean this gunk off my center console?

This is a big problem with the oval M3 mirrors after a time. The liquid crystal goes bad, liquifies, and sometimes leaks out. BMW would not do a free replacement on my '02 M3. The mirror cost me $330 with a special dealer discount. Just another one of the defective products from a BMW supplier that BMW will not stand behind after the warranty period. Sorry, Jim

Update! My mirror is being replaced by Magna Donnelly, who manufactured the mirrors. Incase anyone else has this issue, you can email: Dani.Andriacchi@magnadon.com or call the phone number in the contact section of magnadon.com and speak to someone about the problem. All you have to do is fill out a form and send it to them along with pictures of the mirror/damage. Hopefully this helps someone else in the future!

Damn..The dim on my mirror covers only 60-70% of the mirror surface. Mine is still under original warranty until 10/2007 (and CPO until 2009). I will contact the dealership and see what they say about replacing mine.

Just got it replaced under warranty at VOB in Rockville MD. First they put the mirror from Z4 (with blackout clown nose) and gave me BS in the receipt that "The mirror is slightly different but is an updated version". Yeah..right.

I tried to talk him to give me the Oval M one like the original defective one, but he said something like "this mirror supersedes the M one because BMW improves the autodim and does not allow the part department to order the oval one and gave this one instead. Trust me because I work in parts dept for 10 years..I won't be messing with you ..blah blah blah.." Well some people might be ok with that, but I want the identical one for warranty repair. If I want the Z4 or rectangular mirror, I'll replace it myself out of warranty.

I don't buy it that BMW does not allow customer to put the exact same part into the car for warranty claim.

I insisted to talk with Parts Manager and he was nice enough to find the right one for me. AND THEY HAVE THIS IN STOCK. I don't know why they had to "special order" from BMW NA and still could not order the right one. Well he also told me that all mirror has the same part number, just have to choose the right item number. I look at the one he found for me and the part number is not the same as the one they ordered for me.

Well. I see a lot of M3s in the service center with even rectangular ones, so I guess this how they sell the lame excuse of ordering the wrong parts?

I had to wait 9 hours to get my car back just for eplacing the mirror and another 1 hour arguing this with him. He ended up replacing my mirror himself in 5 mins with the part they have in stock.

VOB really lives up to their reputation and this is probably the last time I will go there for my service. Since I live in VA, I'll take my chance with Fairfax, Arlington or Sterling (quite far).

BTW, the replacement mirror works perfectly with the dim area covering the whole oval.